60 
MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 
narrow snout, small mouth, long worm-like tongue, entire want of 
teeth of any sort, rudimentary tail, free toes with stout digging 
claws, and spiny porcupine-like coats. The family contains two 
species, one with five toes to each foot, from Australia as well as 
New Guinea; and the Three-toed Echidna [Pi'oechidna bi'vijnii) , 
an animal which is confined to the mountainous region of Northern 
New Guinea. 
All Echidnas live exclusively on ants, which they catch with 
their long extensile tongues, like the true Anteaters. Their palates 
are covered with rows of horny spines, which serve to scrape 
the ants off the tongue when it is withdrawn into the mouth. 
Echidnas are able, by the help of their strong curved claws, to 
bury themselves in loose soil in a very few minutes. 
Fig. 25, 
Australian Water-Mole {^Oniithorhynchus anatinus). 
The second family of the Order is the OniithorhynchidrB, 
distinguished by the extraordinary structure of the muzzle, which 
resembles the bill of a duck, and is provided with horny lamellae, 
which in the adult serve the purpose fulfilled during youth by 
deciduous true teeth ; the tail is long and broad, and the toes are 
webbed ; its coat consists of thick, close hair without any spines. 
The only species is the Duck-billed Platypus (^Ornithorhynchus 
anatinus), or AYater-jMole of the colonists, which, as might be ex- 
pected from its structure, is entirely an aquatic animal, feeding on 
water-animals, for which it searches in the mud in the same manner 
as a duck. Like the Echidna it is a native both of Australia and 
Tasmania, but has not been found in New Guinea. 
